Rotation Selection Time!

[bacillus1]

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So today they gave out rotation selection packets. Lots of things to choose from. We have to rank a bunch of rotations and they will give us some of the ones that we ranked, based on availability. I want to do a residency, and I threw a few "practical" things that may get me a job. I am thinking of ranking the following (not necessarily this order):

Anticoag Service
LTC
Poison Control Center
Reg. affairs (industry)
Psych
Investigational Drug Service
Home Infusion
Nutrition Support

For my acute care rotations I think I'll put down infectious diseases and general medicine.

Anyone want to share their experiences in any of these types of rotations? Any other rotation types that you thought were awesome that I should consider?

 

[PharmDstudent]

I enjoyed my Long Term Acute Care and Urgent Care elective rotations.

Since you're considering doing a residency, you might want to think about an Academic or Teaching rotation if your school has one available.

 

[bacillus1]

I enjoyed my Long Term Acute Care and Urgent Care elective rotations.

Since you're considering doing a residency, you might want to think about an Academic or Teaching rotation if your school has one available.

Is there really much benefit in that? I already have some teaching experience (though admittedly with much younger students), so I thought maybe get exposed to more areas of pharmacy practice instead of teaching. We get to do 3 electives, so I thought why spend 1 on teaching if I could see more practice settings.

 

[PharmDstudent]

They had residents at our school from our school...

 

[KARM12]

Depends on the type of residency you want to do (amb care, acute care, admin).

For acute care you might want to do more hardcore clinical rotations...ID, ICU, medicine, onc, peds, ED. For amb care: anticoag, primary care, family med, geri, HIV clinic.

 

[iluvtennis]

Try to get your inpatient and ambulatory rotations earlier in the year. This way when you you hand out your CV, the residency directors see your clinical work. It also gives you more clinical experiences you can pull from to answer interview questions.

 

[pharmagirlie]

Do rotations that you are interested in doing. If you plan on doing a residency i recommend you do more hospital oriented rotations like ICU, internal med, infectious disease etc.

Or if you want to work at one of the rotations, after you graduate then you should choose it, because if that rotation site sees how you work and you get along there and their may be a possible opening (or maybe you can ask for one), they may be more willing to offer you an interview over an individual who forwarded their resume even if that unknown individual may be a bit more qualified that you. (Doesnt happen often, but this did happen with my friend who got a staffing position for a hospital site right after graduation).

I would honestly ask the upper classmen about the preceptors and have that be a factor of how you rank your rotations sites. Because let me tell you, if you have a horrible preceptor they will make you miserable for the next 6 weeks.... For instance faculty as we all know are HARDCORE and means more work and projects and more expectations vs a non-faculty. Whoever your preceptor is will either make you love pharmacy or make you hate it... so choose wisely based on that too.

And choose what you want to do because most likely you wont be able to gain some of these experiences after you graduate for instance working for an investigation drug.

 

[bacillus1]

Try to get your inpatient and ambulatory rotations earlier in the year. This way when you you hand out your CV, the residency directors see your clinical work. It also gives you more clinical experiences you can pull from to answer interview questions.

Unfortunately we cannot choose the timing of our rotations.

I want to go into ambulatory care. We have a required ambulatory care rotation. Plus I ranked anticoag clinic first on my list. HIV clinic is a good option. I think I might take out home infusion (sounds boring, though practical) and rank HIV clinic instead. I'm doing practice-based research this semester on antiretrovirals, so that might prove useful for an HIV rotation. That's 1 required am care rotation and 2 electives that I will be ranking. Hopefully I will get 1 of the 2. Then the chances that I will have an am care rotation before midyear are pretty good.

 

[iFarm]

For acute care you might want to do more hardcore clinical rotations...ID, ICU, medicine, onc, peds, ED. For amb care: anticoag, primary care, family med, geri, HIV clinic.

Don't let Karm12 lure you to the darkside!

In my extremely unbiased opinion, you should definitely do home infusion and nutrition support rotations, followed of course by a home infusion residency 😎

 

[KARM12]

Don't let Karm12 lure you to the darkside!

In my extremely unbiased opinion, you should definitely do home infusion and nutrition support rotations, followed of course by a home infusion residency 😎

Dude, that is why I said it depends on the type of residency you are interested in completing!

Home infusion sounds like torture to me. I am sure what I do would be torture to you! That is the good thing about the profession...variety!

 

[Praziquantel86]

I'll just echo what everyone else has said: if you're interested in an acute care residency, cover your bases in the inpatient setting (e.g., ID, heme/onc, pediatrics, critical care, etc.). If you're after ambulatory care, do the same thing there. If you're unsure of which you want to do, get a nice mix of things that have overlapping skillsets, like anticoagulation monitoring or HIV management.

 

[iFarm]

Dude, that is why I said it depends on the type of residency you are interested in completing!

Home infusion sounds like torture to me. I am sure what I do would be torture to you! That is the good thing about the profession...variety!

Haha, just messin' with ya. Actually, when talking to other pharmacists, I find everything non-retail to be pretty interesting. I never thought I'd be so content with being a pharmacist! That was probably due to the time I spent in retail (definitely not for me).

And yes, the variety is great! OP, choose wisely.

 

[ronkoshy]

...

 

[CUpharmD2013]

You guys got a pharmacogenomics option? That's something that has always interested me and I know is offered by my school. Personalized medicine may become important in our lifetime.

 

[bacillus1]

i noticed you didn't put any retail rotations on that list .. they are not a waste, you should at least do one even if you already work at a retail pharmacy

Oh, I didn't put that on the list because we have 3 required rotations: ambulatory care, hospital pharmacy practice and retail. Of course I will be doing all 3 of those. I just listed the elective rotations and the 2 acute care rotations I'd be choosing. We have to do the 3 rotations I mentioned, 2 acute care rotations and 3 electives (but they make us rank 8 so we could get 3 of those).

To CUpharmD: no, we don't have a pharmacogenomics rotation.

 

[mustang sally]

You guys got a pharmacogenomics option? That's something that has always interested me and I know is offered by my school. Personalized medicine may become important in our lifetime.

A pharmacogenomics rotation sounds like it would be awesome! I guess there aren't too many sites like that in the country.

 

[CUpharmD2013]

A pharmacogenomics rotation sounds like it would be awesome! I guess there aren't too many sites like that in the country.

Yeah, I'm really excited and hope that I can land it.

 

[Its Z]

So today they gave out rotation selection packets. Lots of things to choose from. We have to rank a bunch of rotations and they will give us some of the ones that we ranked, based on availability. I want to do a residency, and I threw a few "practical" things that may get me a job. I am thinking of ranking the following (not necessarily this order):

Anticoag Service
LTC
Poison Control Center
Reg. affairs (industry)
Psych
Investigational Drug Service
Home Infusion
Nutrition Support

For my acute care rotations I think I'll put down infectious diseases and general medicine.

Anyone want to share their experiences in any of these types of rotations? Any other rotation types that you thought were awesome that I should consider?

What KARM said.

As far as Home Infusion goes, it's nothing more than a glorified retail that specializes in Home IV meds.. only insurance verification process may be more drawn out and the logistics of delivery could be interesting. You may learn some about different types of IV tubings and pump system.. but being a director of home IV infusion company was by far the worst pharmacy job I've ever had. It's mind numbing at best dispensing 10 different drugs all day long. Even 8 days I worked retail for my friend was better.

 

[Caverject]

Oh, I didn't put that on the list because we have 3 required rotations: ambulatory care, hospital pharmacy practice and retail. Of course I will be doing all 3 of those. I just listed the elective rotations and the 2 acute care rotations I'd be choosing. We have to do the 3 rotations I mentioned, 2 acute care rotations and 3 electives (but they make us rank 8 so we could get 3 of those).

To CUpharmD: no, we don't have a pharmacogenomics rotation.

Suggestion for your retail rotation: Pick an independent pharmacy that is some what involved in the community. You will learn much more from that type of preceptor, especially from a business aspect, than you ever would from a Walgreens or CVS

 

[bacillus1]

Suggestion for your retail rotation: Pick an independent pharmacy that is some what involved in the community. You will learn much more from that type of preceptor, especially from a business aspect, than you ever would from a Walgreens or CVS

Cannot pick a type of retail rotation, they get assigned. I picked independents for both my retail IPPEs though, and I enjoyed one of them.